Sunday, June 18, 2017

Chicago: Emails, Emails, and More Emails

One of our goals for the summer is to help local evangelical workers and missionaries get a better understanding of the Christian culture and presence in the city and surrounding suburbs. We got a packet of questions to try to answer during our Chicago orientation and off we went.Thankfully Becky loves research, and I love interviewing people (thanks Journalism classes). The past week has been a flurry of Google searches, phone calls, and countless emails. Becky has been reaching out to Messianic Jewish congregations, and I've been contacting various campus ministry organizations at Chicagoland colleges and universities.The theme of this week has been emails. We've sent emails asking if we can interview people, emails asking about various organizations, emails requesting phone calls, emails requesting sit-down interviews...the list goes on. Between the two of us, Becky and I have sent over 125 emails in the past week.

The view from one of our windows (if you look closely you can see sailboats out on the lake)

With all those emails, it can be easy to start to feel like our research is a massive undertaking that we'll never be able to complete. That's why Becky and I are so thankful that we were able to move a couple of days ago into our permanent residence for the summer. We have a gorgeous view, and every morning when we wake up we're able to see the sunrise over Lake Michigan and people scurry about to and from work (we're currently watching a bridal party get ready for a wedding at the chapel next to the lake). It's been a good reminder for us of how much God cares for us and the city of Chicago. Seeing all the people wander about also keeps us motivated in our research because we know our results will be used to impact the lives of people all over the city, even the college orientation groups we see every day.Our research is long and daunting, but even if just one person in this city is able to hear the gospel and follow Christ because of it, Becky and I know that all the emails will be more than worth it.Please pray for the following:

our motivation and dedication to our research

that we would gain wisdom and insight on how to best continue our research

the Holy Spirit would lead us to the right people to interview and share the gospel with

that our research will be used to more strategically share the gospel with people in this city